


Still Here

by CrystalWaters72



Category: Gilmore Girls
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, POV Jess, Single Parents, Teen Pregnancy, i really am bad at tagging
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-15
Updated: 2019-06-17
Packaged: 2020-05-12 14:45:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,069
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19231237
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CrystalWaters72/pseuds/CrystalWaters72
Summary: Of course the town would be curious when Luke's nephew walked into the diner with a baby in his arms. This is Stars Hollow, after all.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Title is basically the song Still Here by Digital Daggers
> 
> Yeah other than that I hope you enjoy!!
> 
> (also I don't swear so swear words have asterisks which will be the deal with everything I write but ya know *shrug*)

Jess stepped off the bus, shoulders aching from the bags and a bundle of blankets in his arms. He hasn’t been here since he was eight, nine years ago, and yet everything looked the same.

He started walking towards the diner seemingly against his own will, hardly knowing if he was going the right direction. If it was even still there.

The sound of the bell barely registered in his mind. All Jess could focus on were the stares of the people in the diner. Right. This was Stars Hollow, and he was a strange kid with two big bags and a bundle of blankets he seemed real protective over. Of course there would be stares.

His attention was brought back to his own self when the blankets started to move. “Shh,” he whispered, slightly bouncing the bundle up and down.

A man in a flannel with a backwards baseball cap was taking a couple’s orders. Luke looked exactly the same after the years since they’ve last seen each other.

As he left the table, Jess walked towards the man.

They made eye contact for barely half a second before Jess says, “Liz kicked us out.”

The way Luke raised his eyebrows might’ve been funny if it wasn’t for the heavy bundle starting to fuss.

“Jess?”

He nodded a fraction.

Luke took in Jess’ messy hair and dark eyes. He sighed. “The apartment’s still in the same place. Go upstairs.”

Another nod and he was heading up to the office space without another word.

The baby hadn’t cried at all yet. Not back in New York, not on the bus ride. Now she was crying. Probably hungry.

He hadn’t thought about food at all since last night. And he hadn’t eaten since lunch the previous day.

Jess’ stomach growled.

“I know, I know,” he said, gently bouncing her, hoping to calm her down. “I’m hungry, too, Kiddo. Dada doesn’t have any food, and Mama’s not here. Just hold out a little longer.” He shushed her again when she wouldn’t stop crying, trying to not let the noise irritate him.

He shifted her to one arm, fighting back a yawn as he slid his duffel bag off his shoulder and onto the floor, and then to the other arm as he swung the makeshift baby bag onto the table.

But she was still crying and Jess was about to cry himself. He started to hum absentmindedly, too busy thinking about what he would do if Luke didn’t help him.

He could ask other people around town. There had to be  _ someone _ that would help him, right? If no one else, he remembered there being an inn a little outside of town. He could try there. He didn’t have the money for a room, but he could work for it. He could get two jobs, maybe three if he was lucky. But if he didn’t have enough to get a room for even a single night, how would he be able to afford a babysitter?

The door opened before his thoughts could spiral any further.

Luke stared at the crying bundle of blankets. “What’s wrong with it?”

Jess tried not to flinch at the choice of pronoun and stared back. “She’s probably hungry.”

Rubbing his jaw, Luke said, “I didn’t know Liz was pregnant.”

“She wasn’t.”

That earned another comical rise of the eyebrows. Jess was too tired to react any more than a look of indifference.

He tried to muster up the only energy he had left to try and sound pleading, though he hated having to do so. “Please, Luke. I promise we won’t stay long, just until I can figure something else out. I can work, do errands, whatever you want–”

Luke raised his hands. “Hey, woah, calm down. What are you talking about? And what do you mean Liz wasn’t pregnant? Whose kid is that?”

Jess sighed. He was not ready to have this conversation. “Her mom’s out of the picture, her grandparents wanted to put her up for adoption, but her mom didn’t want them to so they gave her to me. Liz wasn’t happy with having a baby in the apartment, so it was either get rid of the baby or both of us leave. And I think my presence makes it obvious which option I took.”

The baby was still crying and Luke was still staring. “That’s your baby?”

He could feel a tear roll down his cheek. “Mm-hmm.”

Luke let out a drawn out sigh. “Let me call someone and you can take a shower and sleep. You look horrible.”

Jess shook his head. “Mariah’s not leaving my sight until I know she’s gonna be okay.”

A raise of an eyebrow. “Mariah?”

“Her name,” Jess said weakly.

Luke hummed. “It’s pretty.” He sighed again. “You can stay here. And you don’t have to worry about figuring out some other plan, you can stay here as long as you need.”

Jess felt more tears running down his face. “Thank you, Luke.”

Mariah was quiet for a few seconds, before she started to cry again, louder than before. Jess winced at the sound and tried not to think about his own growling stomach. He closed his eyes and went back to humming and bouncing her up and down, up and down.

He didn’t even realize Luke was gone until he was back again with a grocery bag.

“Okay, I only have the bare minimum, but I figured you could figure out brands and flavours and whatever you want later. And I assumed you didn’t really care about what you ate right now, so you can have something from the diner or the fridge.”

Jess stared into the bag. There was baby formula. Baby shampoo. A bottle. Diapers. He already had diapers. You could never have too many diapers. “Thanks, Luke,” he mumbled.

“Hey, look! Uncle Luke got food for you. Just hold on tight while he gets it ready, okay, Kiddo?” he said to Mariah, a pleading look aimed at Luke.

There was a trace of a smile on Luke’s face as he sighed and started to make the baby formula.

“Thanks,” Jess said for what seemed like the hundredth time. He meant every single one.


	2. Chapter 2

Jess woke up and Mariah wasn’t there. He had been careful to position himself so he wouldn’t accidentally crush her in his sleep, but apparently that wouldn’t have mattered because  _ she wasn’t there _ .

He sat up and wildly looked across the room, eyes landing on a crib that was definitely not there when he went to sleep. He hesitantly got up from Luke’s bed and crept over to the crib. Mariah was there, sleeping peacefully. Jess relaxed and sighed in relief, slowly backing away from the crib.

His stomach growled. He really needed food right then.

He tried not to make any noise as he left the apartment and started down the stairs. He paused halfway down and listened. No crying. He was in the clear.

“Twenty-three hours,” Jess announced when he saw Luke behind the counter.

Luke blinked at him. “What?”

“I had a peanut butter sandwich made with stale bread twenty-three hours ago.”

“Jess!” Luke hissed, barely looking where he was going as he went to the window behind the counter.

He sat down and looked longingly at the donuts on the counter.

“Don’t even think about it,” Luke said as he walked past.

Jess groaned and rested his forehead against the surface.

“Oh, Lukey-poo!”

Jess was up and out of his seat in less than a second, not appreciative of the invasion of his senses.

The woman went right up to Luke and literally started bouncing. “Is he up yet, is he up yet?”

“He’s at the counter,” Luke answered, hardly paying her any mind.

She whirled around to face Jess, face lighting up with excitement. Jess’ heart sunk. She scurried to sit down where he just got up from.

“Hi, I’m Lorelai! I wanted to get to you before Luke had the chance to fill your head with all kind of lies about me.”

“Hi,” Jess replied, guarded.

“You know, you should meet my daughter. She's about your age. She can show you where all the good wilding goes on.” Jess kept quiet and her smile faltered. She opened her mouth to continue, but Jess beat her to it.

“Hey, Luke, I’m gonna… go. Check on. Yeah.” He sprinted up the stairs and away from Lorelai’s obnoxious voice that was too much for him right then.

And of course Jess was welcomed by more crying and an awful smell.

“Never too many diapers,” he muttered to himself.

-=+=-

Jess’ attention was brought away from his book when his music turned off all of a sudden.

“How can you listen to that? You can barely hear yourself think, and you have a sleeping baby in your arms!”

He rolled his eyes and put his book to the side. “She likes it.”

Luke threw his hands out. “How could you possibly know that? She’s a newborn! She barely reacts to anything!”

“She told me,” Jess said, voice dripping with sarcasm.

Mariah started to squirm in his arms. He hummed a few notes of Groundswell and she went still again. He looked towards Luke and raised an eyebrow, still humming.

Luke put his hands up in surrender. “Fine, you win. Listen to your music. Just leave it down enough that I can actually hear myself think.”

“You got it, Uncle Luke.” He got up to put her in the crib.

“Luke is fine. Just Luke.” He sighed and rubbed his face. “I hope you know that I don’t have another bed.”

Jess shrugged. “So I’ll sleep on the couch. What’s actually on your mind? And I’m not asking to create some cheesy movie moment, I just don’t want you staring at me as you figure out how to say it.”

Luke sighed again. “By the way you bailed earlier, I’m guessing that you probably won’t like this, but Lorelai invited us to dinner tomorrow night. Her daughter’s going to be there, and you’ll probably like her because Rory’s a lot like Lorelai and has a slightly tighter grip on reality. Well, she’ll be there, and I thought it would be great for you to meet new people. So I said that we’d be there.”

Jess narrowed his eyes. “I don’t know what it is, but you’re not telling me something. And you must’ve known that I would refuse, so you said you’d bring Mariah, didn’t you?”

Adjusting his hat, Luke said, “I’ll keep a close eye on her, and you can have her back whenever you want. I’ll make sure nobody holds her without your permission first.”

He sighed. “Do I really have a choice?”

“Not really, no.”

“Fine. Now, I’d like to get some sleep before the night of torture.” He walked into the bathroom with a change of clothes. He slid down to the floor and groaned into his hands. Was he ever going to get a break?

-=+=-

_ Jess woke up with the sun shining directly into his eyes. He whined in protest and rolled over, tugging the blanket closer to his face. He heard a soft laugh in front of him and he opened an eye. _

_ “Are you gonna lay there all day or actually wake up?” _

_ He hummed. “Not sure. Try again later.” He wrapped an arm around her waist and closed his eyes again. “Happy birthday yesterday, Holly.” _

_ She laughed again. “That certainly was a great present. Thank you, Jess.” She kissed his forehead. _

_ “Mm, no problem. Now give me a present and let me go back to sleep.” _

_ Holly laughed a third time. It was almost enough to make Jess laugh, himself. “You can keep whining and sleep some more, but I’m going to get something to eat. I’m starving.” _

_ He struggled to sit up. “Don’t worry, I’ll sneak out on my own. I was never here.” _

_ She smiled. “Bye, Jess.” _

His nose twitched as a tear reached it. “Bye, Holly,” he whispered. He opened his eyes and winced at the light. He started humming absentmindedly as he sat up and stumbled over to the crib. Jess looked down at Mariah, who was sleeping peacefully. He smiled and tried not to think of her laugh. God, did he miss her laugh.

He brushed his hand over Mariah’s head.

“She’s okay. Our daughter’s okay.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *clap clap clap* I'm not the biggest fan of the last scene but I hope you liked it at least!!


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